Gary E. Whelan: President
Email: [email protected]
Gary has a B.S. in fisheries management from the University of Wyoming and a M.S. in fisheries management from the University of Missouri. He has worked as a fisheries biologist for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources for 35+ years and prior to that worked as a research biologist for Michigan State University for 4.7 years. Currently, he is a Program Manager for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources – Fisheries Division, responsible for all operational aspects of the Fisheries Research Section. His other staff duties include fish health program oversight, assisting with habitat management issues including fish passage challenges, and handling emergency response issues for Fisheries Division. In addition to his state duties, he has been involved with the National Fish Habitat Partnership for the last 18 years, initially one of the Core Team that wrote the Plan and for the last 17 years, as the Co-Chair of the Board’s Science and Data Committee directly responsible for the National Fish Habitat Assessment. He is a life member and Fellow of the American Fisheries Society (AFS). He has served in numerous leadership roles for AFS, currently 2nd Vice President, am heavily involved in multiple Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (AFWA) committees on national fisheries issues and was the second President of the Instream Flow Council. He has authored or coauthored 53 peer-reviewed publications with 6 in progress or review at this time. While his educational training is as a stream ecologist, he has been blessed with a wonderfully diverse career that has ranged from studying 5 micron fish parasites and many other fish pathogens to understanding stream and watershed functioning to examining the consequences of environmental history on aquatic resources to analyzing hydropower impacts statewide to examining fish habitat on a national scale to managing complex fisheries research and fish production systems for the State of Michigan. In his spare time, Gary enjoys fishing, hunting, hiking, and nature exploring with his wife Karen and his grown children, Greg and Kelli.
David Thorne: Past President
Email:[email protected]
Michael Homer, Jr.: President-elect
Rebecca Krogman: Secretary/Treasurer
Rebecca Krogman is a research biologist with Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Her
specialty up until November 2023 was reservoirs, the problem child and yet ever-so-useful product of anthropogenic alterations to our freshwater environments. She now works on big rivers, but the center of her work remains the same: the intersection of diverse habitats, a myriad of water uses, and fish both native and not. She earned her B.S. from Iowa State University and M.S. from Mississippi State University, with a thesis focused on fish habitat characteristics in reservoirs.
In addition to her state agency duties, she serves as the Outreach Coordinator for the Reservoir Fisheries Habitat Partnership/Friends of Reservoirs, and and has served AFS as Iowa Chapter President (2022-2023), Fisheries Information and Technology Section President (2017-2019), NCD Reservoir Technical Committee co-chair and chapter representative (2014-2023), AFS Angler Survey Committee (2022-), subunit president, and various other committees and working groups.
Dylan Kwak: Awards Committee Chair
Kanyan Klein: Social Media Coordinator
Kanyan attended Tarleton State University and received her Bachelor’s in Fisheries and Wildlife Sustainability and Ecosystem Sciences. After graduation, she worked for Texas Parks and Wildlife as a Fish and Wildlife Technician at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens, TX. She decided to continue her education and pursue an MBA also at TSU. She is now an assistant fisheries biologist for a private lake management company, Texas Pro Lake Management.
Kanyan is a member of the Texas Chapter of the American Fisheries Society, Texas Wildlife Association, Bass Brigade secretary-treasurer, serves as the social media coordinator for the American Fisheries Society Habitat Section, and the secretary of the Texas Aquatic Plant Management Society.
